When we look at God's Holy Law and consider our own sinfulness it becomes clear that there are many obstacles to our finding the narrow door that leads to eternal life. In fact, Jesus is the only one who could find it because He was perfect and sinless. Without Him, we would be among the many who would never find it! Today, Christ comes to us in Word and Sacrament to lift you up and carry you over the obstacles that block our access and across the threshold of that narrow door so that we may inherit eternal life. May God bless your hearing and your receiving today! (
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Our Epistle text this morning points out the "great cloud of witnesses" who persevered and held fast in spite of great adversity. "BY FAITH," that is, with the assumption that God's promises are sure and certain, these faith-filled men and women walked and lived their lives. But such perseverance is difficult. This morning, Jesus tells us that there is and will be division and conflict as the Word of His salvation goes forth. We see such division in Jeremiah's day even among the prophets within the kingdom of Judah. But through His death and resurrection, Jesus has kindled the fire of faith in the world. Now through Word and Sacrament, He keeps that fire burning and makes us each able to stand in the faith that He bestowed on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the other faithful witnesses who have gone before us so that we too may endure until the end walking by faith and not by sight. (
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Jesus is THE Good Samaritan. Bruised, beaten and battered by sin, we are left by the devil, the world, and our own sin to die by the side of the road. But Christ came into the world to bind up our wounds and carried the weight of our sin upon His shoulders to the cross -- paying for our redemption and salvation with His own blood. (
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Elijah was frustrated and believed that he had experienced enough of life's troubles, evil and sin. Forgetting God's saving work, God's promises to him and his divine calling, Elijah tried to hide from God and from the work God had prepared for him to do. In effect, Elijah was saying to God, "Why don't you do something?" To teach Elijah that He WAS doing something,
The Lord reaches out to us through His Word and His Sacrament, calling us from frustration to renewed faith in Jesus Christ. He reminds us that in Jesus Christ His Son, God HAS been doing something and is continuing to do something. Through Word and Sacrament, God also gives us strength of body, mind and soul to stop our sinful complaining and hiding, and get back into the work of strengthening and saving the souls of others. (
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A series of 3 homilies delivered on Trinity Sunday as we acknowledged God's revelation of Himself as triune through our use of the Athanasian Creed. Homilies were jointly written by Rev. Randy Boelter and Elder Mark Gade and were delivered by Rev. Matthew Dent, Rev. Randy Boelter, and CtK Elder, Mark Gade. (
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Rev. Matthew Harrison, head of LCMS World Relief and Human Care preached an excellent sermon at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne on Friday, April 30th. His sermon makes reference to the number of candidates that did not receive calls this week from that institution.
You can hear his sermon from his blog by going:
here. (
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Claimed by the Father in our Baptism, we are in the hands of the Good Shepherd. He is the Lamb that was slain and rose again. For us, He has overcome sin, death, and the power of the devil. If He is able to do that, He is able to care and protect us as we live in this world. We can be confident and secure in the knowledge that we are in His hand. His goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of your life and when our last hour comes, He shall take us from this great tribulation in which we live and we shall stand before His throne wearing robes made white through washing in His blood. We shall be the ones holding palm branches and praising God in a loud voice saying, "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (
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Pastor Boelter causes us to ponder Jesus' appearance to the fearful disciples behind locked doors and blessing them with His peace and freedom, leading us to rejoice that Jesus has also come to make us "Alive and Free ... Guaranteed!" (
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The tomb is empty and Christ has ascended into heaven! Where do we go to see Jesus today? How do we connect to Him and receive from Him the forgiveness, life and salvation He won for us on the cross of Calvary?
Pastor Dent answers this question as we remember the events of the first Easter Sunday when Christ rose from the dead. (
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Preacher: Rev. Randy Boelter (
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On the night when He was betrayed, our Lord prayed about that time when He would return to the Father and His followers would no longer see Him in the world. We now live in that time - the time between when our Lord ascended into heaven and when He shall come again to judge both the living and the dead. His prayer for us was that we would be united in the same way that He and the Father are. As the Lord of the Church, He ascended on into heaven and continues to pray for us and continues to work in the world to make us and keep us united in Him through the work of the Holy Spirit as we strive and contend to retain purity of doctrine and practice so that all may know that He was sent by the Father to redeem all mankind. (
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